Lake overnight.

District 60 Hopes To Curb Violence

March 13, 1996|By John Flink. and A digest of late news reports, compiled by Joan Giangrasse Kates.

Waukegan — Based on success achieved during a trial run at Jack Benny Middle School, the District 60 Board of Education has voted to implement a conflict resolution program to curb student violence.

Office referrals--academic lingo for being sent to the principal's office--at Benny have decreased to 205 per semester this year from about 900 per semester last year, district officials said.

The workings of the program were explained at Tuesday's board meeting by Benny teachers Marcia Dickman and Debbie Wilhelm, pilot co-sponsors.

Based on a curriculum created by Miami-based Abrams Education Foundation for Peace, the conflict resolution program requires students to take one class per week in subjects like body language, interpersonal skills and basic values of right and wrong, Dickman said.

"We find that many kids just lack basic interpersonal skills, which is why their first impulse is to haul off and deck somebody rather than talk," she explained.